Tuesday, September 12, 2017

The Equifax Storm

Equifax, the Atlanta-based company – one of America’s
three giant credit reporting agencies – announced this September that hackers
had penetrated its computers and stole data for at least 10 weeks before being
detected on July 29. What these hackers stole, Equifax reported, were the
names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and other data of 143 million
“customers” – nearly half the U.S. population. (“Customers” is in quotes because
you likely never asked or agreed to be an Equifax customer, and you have no
ability under current law to make them stop gathering personal financial data
about you.) This attack struck 143 million Americans (most of whom have not yet
felt it) and could put our nation underwater for years to come – perhaps even
drown our personal and national economy and prosperity. [more...]